


Dandelion Crowns

by MulaneySNL



Series: Stranger Family Relations 101 [1]
Category: Community (TV), Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Adult Jonathan Byers, Adult Nancy Wheeler, Again, Bullying, Dandelions, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Jancy, F/M, Flashback, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Annie Edison, Kid Fic, Kid Troy Barnes, Kidfic, Lots of Flashback, This story is mostly flashback, because i wanted to give Jancys something, kinda bs but its what you should expect from me at this point, rushed ending, this is mainly community
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:28:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22797073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MulaneySNL/pseuds/MulaneySNL
Summary: “I’m just struggling to think of what to write about for my next creative writing assignment” she responded sounding almost unsure of herself before feeling proud of the lie that she managed to weave. “We have to write about a childhood memory and I’m struggling to think of a good one to write about.”The table sat in silence for a moment, taking in her answer. “You could write about when we first met.” Troy suggested. The idea seemed interesting enough and definitely wasn’t as dark as her other ideas, so it was good enough for her.Or how Troy and Annie first met in the Orphan Alley-universe.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Troy Barnes & Annie Edison
Series: Stranger Family Relations 101 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638958
Kudos: 6





	Dandelion Crowns

**Author's Note:**

> This is the prequel to my last fic, Orphan Alley and takes place in the same universe as well.  
> In other words, Annie from Community is the daughter of Nancy and Jonathan from Stranger Things. This is just a glimpse into the past considering the ones I gave in Orphan Alley were just sad and life is more than just the sad moments.  
> This takes place during season 3 of Community (again), which is around 2011 because this takes place before Annie moves in with Troy and Abed.  
> I wrote this while I was bored and I hope you all can derive some level of joy from it.

Creative writing was definitely not Annie’s favorite class. It came with a professor, who, for some reason, kept having the students write about their pasts, hopes, and fears, as if she was trying to play therapist or something. Annie was done with therapy; she got her treatment and that part of her life was over. She was ready to fully move forward without looking back, but this one little English credit kept getting in her way. Mrs. Oswald’s therapy seeking eyes were lighting up the room as she was telling her students about their latest assignment, or therapy exercise (depending on how you saw it). The students were to write about a childhood memory and then read that story to the class in order to fill time. Annie was irritated by the whole thing, but that irritation didn’t stop her from thinking of potential memories to write about on her way to lunch with her study group.  
She thought of sharing the first time she heard her parents fight as she quickly grabbed four slices of pepperoni pizza (one for her, one for Jeff, one for Troy, and one for Abed) and put them on her tray. But that seemed too dark and personal to share in front of the class. As she waited in line, she tried thinking of more ideas.  
_‘When mom and dad told me about mom being pregnant with Anthony…no too boring.’  
‘When mom told me about my dad walking out? No that’s too dark’  
‘The last time I ever spoke to my father? No this isn’t therapy and I’m not giving Professor Oswald more excuses for assignments like this’_  
After she paid the cafeteria worker, she went to the group’s usual table where Britta and Shirley were already waiting for her. “Hey guys!” she said trying to mask the endless list of paper prompts that were currently going off in her head.  
“Hello Annie!” Shirley greeted in her sing-song voice while Britta nodded at her in acknowledgement while she was eating her salad. Her and Shirley talked about ideas they were having for their new group biology project while they waited for the boys to finally grace them with their presence.  
“I can’t believe they’re out of pepperoni again!” is how she’s greeted by an upset Troy, followed by Abed and Jeff, who both seem slightly forlorn about the lack of pepperoni pizza available.  
“Which is why I saved you boys some slices.” Annie announced before dropping a slice of pizza onto Jeff, Troy, and Abed’s trays.  
“Thanks Annie! You’re the best!” Troy announces before shoveling his slice down his throat as fast as possible.  
“Aw you guys, it was just a small, kind gesture that I could easily do” she tried to blow off as a response but was only met with the guys chowing down as a response. She frowned, feeling a bit unappreciated.  
“Annie what’s wrong?” Abed suddenly asked. Annie looked up at him, surprised that he picked up that something was wrong.  
“Abed there’s nothing wrong” she replied.  
“She’s lying. Whenever Annie’s upset, she looks at the ground and lip starts to slightly quiver.”  
‘ _Curse Abed and his ability to pick up every detail of what they were doing_ ’ she thought to herself. Now, Annie didn’t want to come off as ungrateful to the study group that became like a family to her over the past few years, so she needed to make up a lie and soon so no one would become suspicious.  
“I’m just struggling to think of what to write about for my next creative writing assignment” she responded sounding almost unsure of herself before feeling proud of the lie that she managed to weave. “We have to write about a childhood memory and I’m struggling to think of a good one to write about.”  
The table sat in silence for a moment, taking in her answer. “You could write about when we first met.” Troy suggested. The idea seemed interesting enough and definitely wasn’t as dark as her other ideas, so it was good enough for her.  
“That’s a great idea Troy, I think I’ll do that” she said as a smile grew on her face. Troy was smiling too, probably in pure pride that he thought of her paper idea.  
So, after lunch, Annie went to the library, pulled out her laptop and got to work on her paper.

* * *

_  
It was a bright sunny afternoon at Riverside Elementary and six-year old Annie Edison spent a good portion of her recess picking the dandelions that littered the field with her best friend Emily. Like most girls her age, Annie liked pretty things like the bright yellow dandelions that she just picked and were tying together in a circle big enough to rest on her head. She was doing a great job at doing it too, considering she was already about halfway done with her dandelion crown when a group of three second-grade boys walked up to her and Emily, their shadows blocking the sunlight that once shined on the two young girls. Upon seeing the malicious grins on their faces, Emily ran away as far as she could. The boys didn’t follow her though, they continued staring down Annie, who was still working on her dandelion crown.  
“Hey four eyes!” one of them called for her attention, as she was the only kid in first and second grade to need glasses, they definitely weren’t referring to anyone else. It was never something she felt too ashamed of prior to this incident, considering no one else made fun of her for it. Besides all of the girls who wear glasses in the movies are much prettier than the popular girls.  
She looked up at the boy in the middle addressing her but didn’t respond because she didn’t know what to say.  
“What are you making ugly?” the second boy, to the right of the middle boy jeered at her.  
“D-dandelion crown” she responded, speaking barely above a whisper.  
“What was that?” the boy on the right asked again.  
“Dandelion crown.” she responded slightly louder.  
“Oh, look boys, she’s officially crowning herself as ‘Queen of the Uglies’” middle boy commented while laughing.  
A frown grew on Annie’s face. She never thought of herself as ugly before. She had also never thought of herself as pretty before, not like Holly Hoffman and her curly blonde hair. But, again, she never considered herself as one of the ugly girls.  
“’Queen of the Uglies’ is right. She really thought she was important enough to pick all of the flowers and hog them all for herself. How selfish do you have to be to kill all of the dandelions like that?” the boy on the left pointed out to her.  
“I- “she tried to respond, but the words weren’t coming. ‘Was she ugly?’ and ‘Was she selfish?’ kept playing on an endless and painful loop in her mind as she tried to shut out the boys’ insults and tried not to cry. And for a while, that seemed to be working until the boy in the middle grabbed the half-finished dandelion crown out of her hands and started to roll the flowers between his hands, destroying the flowers and the crown.  
Yellow dust fell down onto Annie’s head as tears started to fall from her eyes. All of her work was destroyed. She heard the older boys above her start to chant “Crybaby! Crybaby! Crybaby!” as she cried and that somehow made things worse.  
She must have been so enveloped in her own tears that she didn’t notice a fourth second grade boy run up to the group at hand.  
“Jared what are you and your buttwipe friends doing?” the fourth boy asked. Suddenly the three boys stopped taunting Annie and faced him.  
“We’re just having some fun T-Bone!” the middle boy, Jared, Annie assumed, answered.  
The fourth boy raised an eyebrow and looked over at Annie as a response, “It doesn’t look like a lot of fun to me.” The other boys looked as though they were rushing to defend themselves from T-Bone’s critical words, but he wouldn’t let them get in a word of response. “Besides”, the boy continued “If you get caught messing with first graders again, we won’t be allowed to use the kickball field for another week.”  
At the mention of this, the other three boys scattered leaving only the fourth boy and a crying Annie.  
“Hey, you don’t have to cry anymore, they’re gone. And they shouldn’t be giving you anymore trouble” the boy tried to comfort before he had a sudden look of realization. “But if they do, just grab me and I’ll take care of it.”  
Annie just sniffled in response.  
“My name is Troy” he continued, “What’s yours?”  
“Annie.”  
“Well it’s nice to meet you Annie. What’s that you’ve got over there?” he asked while gesturing to the destroyed dandelion crown.  
“It was a crown, but it got a little destroyed” she said as she sniffled.  
“That’s awesome!” he replied, seeming genuinely interested. “You have got to teach me how to do that!”  
Annie laughed as a response, she never met a boy who liked pretty things before, so she spent the rest of recess teaching him how to make one.  
“Like this?” Troy asked, holding up the finished circle that was his dandelion crown.  
“Yes! That’s perfect!” Annie replied. With that, Troy placed the crown on Annie’s head. It was a bit small, but that didn’t matter to Annie, she felt like the most special girl in the world.  
“With that, I pronounce you ‘Queen Annie of Beautiful Flowers’!” he announced in an old-timey announcer voice.  
“Thank you. As my first order as queen, I pronounce thee ‘Lord Troy of Important Things’” she decreed before the bell rang and they both had to go their separate ways to line up to go inside.  
Once inside, Annie wanted to wear her flower crown for the rest of the day. But Mrs. Garden, her teacher, said she couldn’t because some kids could be allergic. But Mrs. Garden did offer to hold onto the crown until it was time to go home.  
So, Annie spent the rest of the day doing first grade things until it was time to go home. Mrs. Garden kept her promise and gave her back the dandelion crown at the end of the day, which felt a little less special now that Troy wasn’t giving it to her, but that didn’t dampen her mood. She raced out to the school parking lot to scout for her mother.  
It didn’t take long to spot Nancy, her mother, Annie just had to search for the small woman dawning sweatpants with her hair back. She usually gave off the appearance of being well put together but having just recently starting maternity leave had her taking it easy in the physical appearance department.  
Annie ran to her mother, flowers adorning her head as she started to talk about her day. Nancy ushered her daughter into the car and made sure she was buckled up before heading to the front seat. Once in the front seat, Nancy adjusted her rear-view mirror and checked on her newborn and babbling toddler in the back. Only once she started driving, did she pay attention to her daughter.  
“And then Troy came out of nowhere and stopped the big kids from picking on me- “  
“Wait. Who was picking on you?” Nancy asked, angered at the idea of anyone making fun of her daughter.  
“Some second-grade boys, but Troy stopped them!” Annie pointed out.  
“Who’s Troy?” Nancy asked, having never heard of that name before.  
“He’s another second grader, but he’s really really nice mom.” Annie defended. Nancy was still worried about her daughter being bullied, but Annie didn’t seem too upset about it now. She’ll wait until Jonathan gets home from work and then they can figure this out.  
From Nancy’s perspective, this could be a good thing. Her daughter was a part of some conflict but handled it herself. And that was a parent’s job, to raise independent children. But on the other hand, her daughter was getting bullied and there was no reality where she could accept that. Nancy wanted nothing more than to fight a bunch of seven-year olds, but that probably was not the best course of action. Again, she’ll figure this out when Jonathan gets home.  
After the drive home, Annie’s flower coated head ran out of the car and into her room to color. Nancy got Anthony out of his car seat and took him inside so she could feed him and start cooking dinner.  
It wasn’t long before Jonathan got home, Annie was still coloring, Anthony was napping, and Nancy was setting the table for dinner that night. Jonathan greeted his wife with a hug and a peck on the cheek.  
“Hey how was work?” she asked before dropping the bomb on him.  
“Same old. Same old.", he responded. “How are things around here?”  
Nancy took a deep breath. “Fine. It’s just a group of older boys were making fun of Annie earlier today.”  
“Wait. What?” he asked.  
“Yeah, during recess. She seems unbothered by the whole thing, but I’m still worried you know?” she responded.  
“That’s terrible. Have you called the school about it?” he asked.  
“Not yet. I don’t know whether or not we should even get involved. It’s her battle, shouldn’t she be the one fighting it? Am I a bad parent for not wanting her to do this on her own?” Nancy rambled on as she started to pace back and forth.  
Jonathan stopped her pacing by lightly resting his hands on her arms. He then lightly grabbed her chin and slowly angled it up towards him before kissing her forehead.  
“You are not a bad parent. You are just trying to figure this out as you go along, and that’s okay because you’re not alone in this. I’m here for you. I’m here for Annie. And when he needs me, I’ll be here for Anthony. As someone who has been bullied his entire life, I know that Annie should not be going through this alone.”  
“You’re a good father” she tells him before smiling quickly as a response before letting her face fall back into its resting position. “What do we do now?” she asked.  
“You’ll call the school and I’ll talk to Annie.” he said before kissing her forehead again and leaving the room before she called the school.  
Jonathan knocked on Annie’s room before entering and saw his daughter coloring with a crown of dandelions resting upon her head. He always liked to play along with whatever games she was playing, he was always delighted in seeing her smile. “Your majesty, what royal decrees do you have for me today?”  
“Daddy!” Annie yells in excitement before running over to her father.  
“Yes your majesty, I have returned from my long journey to the land of Alphabet and I will tell you about my travels later, but first what have I missed since my departure?”  
“I made a friend!” she announces.  
“Tell me all about this friend.” he kindly requests and Annie tells him all about how Troy stood up for her and made her a new crown.  
“This Troy seems like the bravest and noblest knight in the land, but the ogres he fought were feeding you nothing but lies. That’s what ogres do when they come across those that are smarter, kinder, and more beautiful than them.”  
Annie’s brow furrowed in confusion, “But I’m not beautiful.”  
Jonathan frowned at his daughter’s words “Why wouldn’t you think your beautiful?”  
“Because I have these dorky glasses and my hair isn’t blonde and curly like Holly Hoffman’s.” she responded honestly.  
“So? You have glasses, that just gives you a different perspective when seeing things.” He told her truthfully, he knew this day would come, so he’s been saving that glasses line for years now. “Also, so what? If everyone had Holly Hoffman’s hair, then no one would be unique. Your hair isn’t ugly, it’s just different than Holly’s.”  
“I guess that makes sense.” she responds.  
“Besides Troy doesn’t seem to think your hair is ugly, he still defended you anyways your majesty”  
With that Annie smiles and hugs her father.  
_

* * *

“ _Many things in my life changed a lot since that day_ ” Annie says, starting to finish off reading her story in front of the class. “ _My parents are no longer together, and after my mom called the school, older kids weren’t allowed to interact with younger classmen anymore. But regardless, Troy Barnes has stayed not only my friend, but my ‘Knight in Shining Armor’. Thank you!_ ”  
She was the last person to read in front of the class that day, so she left the classroom for lunch right after that. She no longer had things to ponder about while she buys her Caesar salad and heads over to the usual lunch table. Because she knows that no matter what Troy, and the rest of the study group have her back. With her no longer being on speaking terms with her mother, father, or brother, having people on her side is the most important thing. Those people are her true family.  
And she can think that as she watches most of her study group debate over the chicken fingers most of them are eating. She can’t bring herself to care what the debate’s about, only that she gets to witness it. Her thoughts are only interrupted by Troy’s own spoken thoughts.  
“What are chicken fingers, if chickens don’t actually have fingers. Or what if they actually do, but we can’t see them under their feathers?”  
The rest of the study group groans or tries to explain chicken anatomy to Troy, but all Annie can think is   
‘ _Yeah, that’s my family._ ’

**Author's Note:**

> Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this and please leave any thoughts, feedback, and story suggestions in the comments.  
> Also please leave kudos, I appreciate it greatly!  
> Also please check out Orphan Alley if you haven't already.


End file.
